Sacrificial Altar.
Bound to a cross, Ao Chi’s eyes had little light left in them.
She could only hang her head limply, waiting for fate to arrive.
Her father, Ao Qing, stood to one side, but looked as if he saw nothing—or rather, he was pretending to see nothing.
Ao Qing’s hands were clenched tightly against his own thighs, which wanted to rise, his fingernails digging into his flesh.
Before long, a figure appeared before Ao Chi.
The shadow covered her body.
Ao Chi slowly raised her head, and reflected in her eyes was a pale face with narrowed eyes and a perpetual smile.
A scorpion tail dripping purple liquid slowly extended from beneath his robe.
He chuckled softly: “It’s okay, little one. Dragons are very flexible. Even at your age, you can lay a hundred eggs a day without any pain, alright?”
As he spoke, a few drops of dark purple venom fell from the stinger as it slowly approached Ao Chi’s lower abdomen.
Though her eyes were filled with fear, Ao Chi gritted her teeth and did not utter a single sound.
As the stinger drew nearer and nearer, Ao Chi finally lost the courage to look it in the eye.
She squeezed her eyes shut and turned her head away.
“Slurp—”
“Who!?”
A sound like someone licking a lollipop rang out.
Scorpion Gentleman whirled around and saw a man sitting on an immortal sword, licking a sugar figurine—but dressed in an unusually strange outfit.
The man wore a dark blue suit of clothes and a matching hat, both in styles the scorpion had never seen before.
A very conspicuous ornament was pinned to the center of the hat.
In midair, Chu Fan, dressed in a self-made police uniform, sat on his flying sword with one leg crossed over the other, a sugar figurine dangling from his mouth and a pen and notebook in his hands.
Looking at the scorpion, he said calmly: “Hmm… making a child under ten bear offspring? Go on, I’m listening.”
Scorpion Gentleman, keenly sensing that this newcomer meant trouble and was deeply cultivated, humbled himself and cupped his hands in salute: “May I ask, fellow cultivator, what brings you here?”
“Me? I’m just a passerby watching the show. Go on, don’t mind me.”
Chu Fan waved his hand.
Hearing this, Scorpion Gentleman was somewhat reassured, but not entirely.
Who knew if it was some trick of his?
Besides, if he was just passing through, why stop here?
“Chu Fan? What are you doing here?”
The moment Ao Chi saw Chu Fan, for some reason, a little light returned to her eyes.
In the muddy darkness of her heart, a small flame began to kindle.
“Me? I told you, just passing by. What are you, deaf? You don’t listen in class, and you don’t listen outside of class either.”
“You—!”
“But if you beg me now, bow to me three times sincerely, and respectfully call me ‘Teacher Chu Fan’, I might consider saving you.”
Saying this, Chu Fan’s expression immediately turned mocking.
He shook his head and said: “Otherwise~ you’ll just end up like a * * , popping out a dozen little dragon pups in one litter~”
Watching Chu Fan’s gloating face, Ao Chi was furious.
But she didn’t notice that a little more light had returned to her eyes.
“I said! I don’t need you to save me! I don’t need you to care about me! This is my choice! For my family, I have no regrets!”
Ao Chi shouted.
Chu Fan could only applaud for her helplessly.
“Magnificent. Say no more.”
Chu Fan resumed eating his sugar figurine, slurping loudly and smacking his lips with every bite.
It sounded utterly uncouth, but it made Ao Chi’s mouth water involuntarily.
Yet she still held back, gritting her teeth, waiting.
Until Scorpion Gentleman turned again and approached her.
“BOOM” — an explosion rang out.
The sound came from the main gate at the bottom of the sacrificial hall.
Ao Chi looked down into the distance below and saw…
“Yu Ying…?”
At the forefront, Shen Yuying had cleaved the stone door in half with her sword.
She sprinted at the head of all the students from the classroom—all of Ao Chi’s friends—as they rushed into the sacrificial hall.
In the darkness, that small flame grew a little brighter, but it was still tiny.
“Xiao Chi! We don’t want you to go! Come down! Come down now!”
Everyone was shouting Ao Chi’s name.
“Why…”
Two streams of tears fell slowly down Ao Chi’s cheeks.
Meanwhile, Chu Fan and Shen Yuying were watching Ao Chi’s expression.
She was clearly wavering, but it still wasn’t enough.
Chu Fan gritted his teeth, but couldn’t think of a better solution for the moment.
“You all…”
Ao Chi wept, then gritted her teeth and shouted: “Go away! Leave! I have nothing to do with any of you anymore!”
The crowd’s voices stopped abruptly.
“I am the eldest miss of the Ao household! I am the future lord! I have long been prepared to sacrifice myself for my family! I am different from all of you!”
“I want to be a righteous person! I cannot live only for myself! As long as our family can revive, what is my mere sacrifice? I don’t care at all!”
“People have to grow up sooner or later! One day they have to take responsibility for their family. I’ve just grown up a few years early! I don’t care!”
That flame grew faint again, gradually dwindling to tiny specks of light, on the verge of being extinguished.
(Is there… really no way…)
Chu Fan frowned and sighed, unable to help clenching his hands.
He knew that someone who had lost the will to live could not be saved.
Forcibly taking her away would be no different from killing her inside.
And Shen Yuying, though young, understood this very well.
Then Scorpion Gentleman smiled faintly and once again walked up to Ao Chi, raising his sinister stinger as he laughed: “Impressive. A true young hero. Uncle is starting to feel sorry for you.”
Slowly, he brought the stinger closer, until it was about to pierce her lower abdomen.
“It’s okay, child. It won’t hurt much. Uncle will be very gent—”
But the stinger never entered Ao Chi’s lower abdomen.
Someone pushed him aside.
That person, frantic with anxiety, began untying the hemp ropes and shackles binding Ao Chi.
Ao Chi raised her head, looked at that aged face, and sobbed: “Father…? Why…?”
Ao Qing, tears streaming down his old face as he untied the ropes, wept: “I’m sorry, Xiao Chi. Father was wrong. Father is the one who isn’t righteous. And yet I claimed to have read the Four Books and Five Classics—I didn’t even understand the duty of a father.”
“Father…”
“Whether you are my biological daughter or not, I am your father. How could a father do something like personally pushing his daughter into a fire pit?!”
“Listen to Father. Let’s not do this. We won’t do anything anymore. Father doesn’t care about reviving the family. Father only wants to watch his good daughter grow up properly. Besides that, Father wants nothing else!”
“Father…”
“It’s okay, Xiao Chi. It’s okay now. Really, it’s okay. Just a moment, Father will have you down, just a moment—”
Ao Qing’s frantic movements suddenly froze.
Ao Chi’s pupils also shrank sharply.
Ao Qing, unable to move, looked down at the stinger that had pierced his chest from behind and emerged through the front.
Yet his eyes were still full of Ao Chi’s face.
Still gritting his teeth, he reached out to undo the very last lock.
But the next moment, Scorpion Gentleman flicked his tail and tossed him to the ground.
“Old loach. You say do it, then don’t do it. What do you take me for? A cheap maid you summon and dismiss at will?”
“FATHER!!!”
Ao Chi screamed herself hoarse.
But the flame in her heart blazed up fiercely, as if it would illuminate the whole darkness and burn the mud to ash.
Ao Qing, still clinging to life on the ground, began crawling toward Ao Chi on all fours, saying weakly: “Stop… I invited you here… I’ll still pay you silver as agreed… but don’t… don’t hurt my daughter…”
“Hmph. You really are an old loach. A stupid loach.”
“What…?”
“You don’t actually think I was after your lousy silver, do you?”
“You…”
“This is a heavenly dragon. It’s got countless treasures in its body. One sting, and I can make her expel all those treasures. The marrow, heart, and lungs of a juvenile heavenly dragon—I wonder how dazzling they must be.”
“What… did you say…?”
“I’m not interested in you, old thing. So you just stand there and watch. Watch how your precious daughter turns into a dried-up corpse.”
“Stop… You must not… hurt my daughter…”
Ao Qing crawled with all his might to Scorpion Gentleman’s feet, only to be kicked away again.
“Get lost, old loach.”
“Father!”
Smiling, Scorpion Gentleman turned around once more and walked toward Ao Chi on the cross.
This time, he did not restrain his greed—it was clearly visible in his eyes.
Watching that snake-faced man, stinger raised, step closer and closer, Ao Chi’s pupils trembled violently.
Tears fell drop by drop.
“No… no…” Ao Chi shook her head, sobbing.
But no matter how she begged, the man only drew nearer.
Until he stood before her.
The man raised his stinger.
This time, the target was not her lower abdomen—but her chest.
Watching the stinger approach little by little, Ao Chi squeezed her eyes shut in fear.
But the next moment, a desperate, full-throated shout came thundering up from below: “XIAO CHI!!!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR!!!! CALL FOR YOUR MASTER!!!!!!!”
The voice reached Ao Chi’s ears.
Her eyes flew open, and immediately she saw Chu Fan, a hundred meters away in midair.
At that moment, the flame finally illuminated the darkness completely, burning the mud and filth to ash.
Ao Chi opened her mouth wide and cried out in a hoarse, tearful voice: “SAVE ME! TEACHER! TAKE ME AWAY! ANYWHERE IS FINE!!!!!”
The voice reached Chu Fan’s ears precisely.
He smiled slightly, tossed aside the sugar figurine in his hand, and replied softly: “Roger~”
Chu Fan’s figure vanished from midair in an instant.
“Ding”
The next moment, a sword perfectly blocked the space between Ao Chi and the poison stinger.
The sword-holder looked at Scorpion Gentleman, still smiling, and said politely:
“Did you hear that? My student doesn’t seem to want you to poke her, Scorpion Lele-kun.”
“What?”
Scorpion Gentleman seemed not to understand what he was saying.
“I said, please take your dirty tail away. You’re scaring my adorable student.”
Hearing the word “adorable,” Ao Chi’s cheeks flushed slightly, but she said nothing.
“What if I don’t?”
Scorpion Gentleman laughed.
“I warn you, my storage ring has more than a dozen types of insect repellent spray. If you scram now, I might still consider letting you go. Otherwise, I’ll spray you with an anime’s worth of it right now.”
“Ha?”
Scorpion Gentleman was completely baffled.
He had no idea what Chu Fan was talking about, nor was he interested.
With a slight push of his hand, Chu Fan easily repelled Scorpion Gentleman, then turned around and began untying the special ropes and shackles binding Ao Chi.
“Of course children have to grow up. That’s undeniable.”
“But growing up is very painful. So before that happens, what children need to do is embrace their dreams and hopes, live happily, and enjoy that thing called ‘childhood’.”
“And even when you become an adult, a complete family doesn’t consist of just you alone. So responsibilities can be shared with others. Isn’t learning to rely on others also a form of growth? Xiao Chi.”
Watching Chu Fan untie the ropes, Ao Chi’s pupils narrowed slightly.
For the first time, something stirred deep within her heart.
“Besides, a good adult doesn’t make children bear responsibility. If they do, they’re bad adults.”
“And in times like this, it’s up to good adults like me to step in and deal with those bad adults.”
Chu Fan smiled and finally undid the last shackle binding Ao Chi.
She was free.
And the first thing she did after gaining her freedom was to rush to her father on all fours.